INDIAN STREAK CLAIMS TIGERS; JACKSON'S DUAL STREAK HITS 45 STRAIGHT MATCHES

JACKSON -- The last time Jackson High's wrestling team lost a dual meet George Bush was president, the Democrats controlled Congress and the Information Superhighway was barely a side road.

Jackson hosted rival Cape Central in its last home dual meet of the season Tuesday and cruised to a 52-19 win. The win was Jackson's seventh this season and 45th straight overall. The win left the Indians just seven shy of the school record 52 straight victories.

The Indians went 8-0 last season and 10-0 in the previous three seasons. During the middle part of this decade Jackson has had a fourth place finish in the state meet (1996) and two state champions (Nathan Norman in 1996 and Gary Newman in 1993).

Tuesday was the final home meet for seniors Joe Wiseman, David Schaaf, Travis Turner, Kent Glass, Kyle Glass, James Hitt, Travis Reiminger and Ben Kinder.

Jackson won the first six matches Tuesday to build a quick 30-0 advantage.

"I thought we wrestled pretty well," said Steve Wachter, who is 25-0 in dual meets as a head coach at Jackson. "We could have wrestled better in some places, but overall I was pretty happy with the way we wrestled. The seniors had a pretty good night."

At 103 pounds, Jackson's Lance Schlick gave Jackson a good start by beating Keith Benton by technical fall 15-0. Then at 112 lbs., freshman Adam Wachter pinned Eric Henry in 4:53. Wachter moved up from the JV in place of Eric Rhodes, who is injured.

"Adam came through with a big win for us at 112; I thought he wrestled real well," said Wachter.

Kyle Watson received a forfeit at 119 lbs. and then the night's closest match came at 125. Jackson's Scott Mangels edged Travis Kaufman 7-6.

Wiseman (130) pinned Ben Allen in 3:25 and Schaaf defeated Greg Chenoweth by major decision 15-2.

After losing the first six matches, Central rebounded to win three straight. Ben Keefe (140) beat Turner by major decision 14-5, Troy Sikes (145) pinned Hitt in 4:18 and Dustin Gross (152) pinned Kyle Ward in 5:13.

"I thought we wrestled really hard up and down the lineup. We put some moves together and nobody quit the whole time," said Central coach Drew Lilledahl.

"I really actually thought that we had an outside chance of winning tonight. Really, (Jackson) has been tough all year and I knew basically it would take a minor miracle to pull off a victory. We've come a long way since the beginning of the season and we're about as good as we're going to get."

Jackson won four of the last five matches. Kent Glass (160) won by forfeit, Kyle Glass (171) beat Kyle Todt 19-11 and Kent Langston pinned Matt Strickland in 58 seconds.

At 215 lbs., Travis Reiminger won by forfeit. Central's Craig Knoth then won the heavyweight match 10-5 over Aaron Ross.